Notorious hacker steals $1 million worth of crypto, including Bored Ape NFT

A notorious scammer known as the Monkey Drainer has drained around 700 ETH ($1 million) of crypto and non-fungible tokens (NFT) in the last 24 hours.

The prominent scout on the chain known as ZachXBT first broke the news, revealing that the scammer was using phishing to siphon user funds. He was also able to track and highlight the activity of the hacker.

“In the last 24 hours, ~700 ETH ($1 million) has been stolen by the phishing scammer known as Monkey Drainer. They recently surpassed 7,300 transactions from their drain wallet after only being around for a few months, the pseudonymous researcher said.

The two biggest victims, 0x02a and 0x626, lost a cumulative $370,000 after signing transactions on phishing websites run by the hacker, according to ZachXBT.

Victim 0x626 has lost the most. They had over $6.2 million worth of crypto in their wallet at the time, but lost $220,000. “Fortunately, they rejected the other transactions,” the researcher said.

The second largest victim, 0x02a, reportedly lost a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), a CloneX, $36,000 in USDC stablecoin and 12 other NFTs worth a total of around $150,000.

“These victims are just two of many who have had their money stolen by Monkey. The total amount stolen easily exceeds $3.5 million, and the number is growing rapidly every day,” ZachXBT said, sharing two main wallets apparently belonging to the hacker.

In phishing scams, fraudsters often share links to websites posing as genuine projects or companies designed to trick victims into handing over private credentials by offering an exciting purchase opportunity.

Web3 security network Chainabuse has specifically flagged four addresses related to Monkey Drainer, including the monkey-drainer.eth address.

Chainabuse described that victims appear to have been phished by a fake Aptos Airdrop Twitter account. For perspective, Apto’s NFTs have seen a surge in demand recently, generating around $5.5 million in sales since launching on October 18.

NFT fraud reaches record levels this summer

Along with a significant increase in the amount of DeFi hacks this summer, there has also been an increase in the number of phishing attempts targeting NFT community members.

As reported, popular NFT aggregator Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) lost ETH 200 worth of digital assets in an exploit in early June. NFT influencer Zeneca and NFT registration platform PREMINT also fell victim to hacks in mid-July.

In mid-August, in an effort to combat spammers, Solana wallet provider Phantom announced a new feature that will burn spam NFTs sent by fraudsters.